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I Neuner

Publications and source records attributed to I Neuner.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Quantitative thermal perception testing in 225 children and juveniles.

Quantitative Thermotesting evaluates peripheral small nerve fiber function. The method of limits is a widely used algorithm of perception threshold determination. Normative data are needed to apply the method of limits in children and juveniles. In 225 healthy boys and girls, aged 7 to 17.9 years, warm and cold perception thresholds were established with the method of limits at the volar distal forearm, the thenar eminence, the lower medial calf, the lateral dorsal foot, and the cheek. A 1 degree C/s stimulus velocity, a 32 degrees C thermode baseline, and a 1.5-cm x 2.5-cm Thermotest stimulator were used. Accuracy of stimulus perception was studied by comparing the lowest to the highest response of five consecutive stimuli. The influence of different stimulator sizes on thresholds was tested at the lower calf and distal forearm with an additional 2.5-cm x 5.0-cm thermode. To determine the impact of the pretest skin temperature on thresholds, skin temperature was correlated with thresholds. Results showed good intratrial reproducibility of thresholds. The large thermode yielded lower thresholds than the small probe. Skin temperature had only minor influence on thresholds. The large probe should be used at body sites where it adjusts planely.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Highly abnormal thermotests in familial dysautonomia suggest increased cardiac autonomic risk.

OBJECTIVE: Patients with familial dysautonomia have an increased risk of sudden death. In some patients with familial dysautonomia, sympathetic cardiac dysfunction is indicated by prolongation of corrected QT (QTc) interval, especially during stress tests. As many patients do not tolerate physical stress, additional indices are needed to predict autonomic risk. In familial dysautonomia there is a reduction of both sympathetic neurons and peripheral small nerve fibres which mediate temperature perception. Consequently, quantitative thermal perception test results might correlate with QTc values. If this assumption is correct, quantitative thermotesting could contribute to predicting increased autonomic risk. METHODS: To test this hypothesis, QTc intervals were determined in 12 male and eight female patients with familial dysautonomia, aged 10 to 41 years (mean 21.7 (SD 10.1) years), in supine and erect positions and postexercise and correlated with warm and cold perception thresholds assessed at six body sites using a Thermotest. RESULTS: Due to orthostatic presyncope, six patients were unable to undergo erect and postexercise QTc interval assessment. The QTc interval was prolonged (>440 ms) in two patients when supine and in two additional patients when erect and postexercise. Supine QTc intervals correlated significantly with thermal threshold values at the six body sites and with the number of sites with abnormal thermal perception (Spearman's rank correlation p<0.05). Abnormal Thermotest results were more frequent in the four patients with QTc prolongation and the six patients with intolerance to stress tests. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that impaired thermal perception correlates with cardiac sympathetic dysfunction in patients with familial dysautonomia. Thus thermotesting may provide an alternative, albeit indirect, means of assessing sympathetic dysfunction in autonomic disorders.

Adolescent↗